African Woman and Child Feature Service

With her baby strapped on her back, the woman walks all day looking for employment, she is a casual laborer and her trade revolves  around washing clothes and cleaning people’s home for Ksh 180 or when she is lucky Ksh 200 a day.

With the current economic crunch, life has not been easy. She is barefoot and her hair is unkempt, her sleeping baby lies loosely on her back, today is one of her many unlucky days, no one has offered her something to do for pay.

It is almost 6 O’clock in the evening and she has to start her journey back home, empty handed.

But Peninah Awiti refuses to go back home empty handed, she accosts passersby for whatever they can part with.

“I have been given Ksh 100 by a well wisher, things have been very difficult this year, since January it has become almost impossible to land a job, many times I go back empty handed, “explains the mother of three.

“My husband is also going through the same struggle, he is also a casual laborer who works at construction sites and with the hard economic times, buildings are stalling leaving its dependant desperate and frustrated with nothing to give their families.”

Over the years, life has continued to be more and more difficult for Kenyans, it is even more difficult for those working in the ever unpredictable informal sector.

Although there has been immense optimism that things will look up, it appears that the economic situation is getting worse with even much less promise of improvement following the recent announcement by the Minister for Finance that there is need to tighten our belts because the economy is down on its knees.

“The financial situation in this country leaves a lot to be desired and its up to Kenyans to come up with innovative ways of making that shilling work to their favor, otherwise if we all sit back and wait for the shilling to acquire some muscle, we would be looking at an even bleak future,” emphasizes Mark Kiama, an accountant in Nairobi.

According to the Kenya Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) Report 2004, the number of people openly unemployed stands at over 2 million with the youth representing about 45 percent of that number.

In addition, the report indicates that the number of the working poor is now on the increase which has been provoked by a rise in slum dwellers as well as female-headed households.

The PRSP report is released every three years and the objective is to describe a country’s macroeconomic structural and social policies in support of growth and poverty reduction.

With research showing that an estimated 1.3 million Kenyans are living with HIV/AIDS, life is even more difficult for those living with the virus and lack decent sustainable employment.

The report further emphasizes the need for mainstreaming special groups in formal employment who generally consist of women, youth and the disabled; their marginalization has kept their participation in sustainable employment at an all time low even when they are at the prime of their productivity.

“I completed college in 2006 where I studied Business Management and I have a Diploma to show for my academic effort but since then I haven’t been employed,” says 26 year old Peter Kianda.

“I have resorted to taking odd jobs because life has to go on and my story isn’t unique, with the recent increase of retirement age to 60 and with no jobs forthcoming, the future has never been more bleak.”

One of the main factors that have led to the marginalization of this special group particularly with regard to women is the negative perceptions; this can be seen by the fact that even though women represent the majority of the labor force their participation in employment remain low compared to that of men.

The report however attributes this fact to a lack of gender responsive policies and programs and in access to productive resources among other underlying factors.

Consequently, the report reveals that the situation has led to “increased unemployment, underemployment, poverty and powerlessness among many Kenyan women.”

As part of the solution, the report indicates that there is need for the government to invest in the promotion of education and training which will empower the women to aggressively seek employment opportunities in sustainable employment.

But the success of such ventures will ultimately depend on the extent to which gender is mainstreamed in the formulation and implementation of policies and programs as it has been explicitly highlighted in the report.

With the strengthening of a ministry that wholly looks into gender issues by the recent formation of the Ministry of Gender and Children Affairs, some of the gender issues that hinder the full participation of women in the economy may soon be a thing of the past,

“We are now working on a data base where we will store Curriculum Vitae’s (CV’s) of women from across the country, we shall at some point ask women to send us their CV’s and then try to match these CV’s with employment opportunities, “explained the Hon Esther Murugi, the Minister for Gender and Children Affairs.

“Then call upon the women in question to apply for the jobs, this is an intervention which we are convinced will improve the employment situation for women since they have been continually marginalized.”

With the report revealing that the majority of the unemployed youth is between 16 and 39 years of age and although the government appreciates that the problem has been accentuated by a depressed economy, it is also true that lack of skills and assets has made it difficult for youths to explore self employment.

But with the formation of the Youth Fund, a credit facility for youths considering micro-enterprises, perhaps there is now need for certain programs that empower the youths with training in order for them to have the muscle to venture into self-employment.

This can be done through measures that assist youths in transiting from school to the labor force.

Although the economy is currently not holding much promise, there is need for us to explore innovative ways in order to cushion ourselves from even harder economic times if the world economic crisis is anything to go by.